Sandsend and the car wash

I do love to go to Sandsend just above Whitby. Ideal to take the children,fly a kite on the beach ,paddle in the rock pools. Better still there are no amusements to spend money on and the parking is free. The sea was quite rough when I was there the other day but I had a thick coat on and my wellies and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I had been to a meeting nearby.

which was quite intense, so it was nice to blow the cobwebs away. I went armed with a bag and collected. as per usual, an amount of seaweed and some pebbles.One of these days I will find some treasure that has been carried from some foreign shore by the tide. Another good thing is that on the way to Sandsend in Whitby there is Four Lanes garage which have the best car wash I know. There is an attendant that gives your car the once over clean before you go through the wash.

Rubi-Sue and her baking

Rubi-Sue looks as if she is going to give the Nigella Lawsons and Juliet Sears a run for their money. Not only does Rubi like eating cakes, she is a dab hand at making them to . At the grand old age of 2years and 7 months she loves to bake. She helps to weigh the ingredients ,mixes them all by herself and spoons them into the cases. Her mum or dad puts them in the oven. When they were ready for icing she put that on herself and sprinkles the fairy pieces on too .Here you see soon she sent us. They were nice and light even Jack was impressed and said he didn't get indigestion.I rang up to thank her for them and left a message asking if that was Rubi-Sue's Bakery.

Gary Verity and the Marie Curie Campaign-please support and RT

Yesterday evening, Gary Verity took the floor at our Herriot meeting looking very svelte and fit. Besides taking Yorkshire to the top of the tree as a tourist destination,Gary has raised tremendous amounts of money for the Marie Curie Care who looked after his dear wife Helen. In the last 5 years he has raised nearing £500,000. I am appealing to you all to help to make it up and above this great total.This weekend he is running in the London Marathon. Last week there was a dinner in the Dales to which we gave a nights bed and breakfast for 2 people to stay in one of our 4 poster bedrooms. I felt honoured as they made this the star raffle prize. The raffle made over £2,000 and the total raised was around £20.000 in the evening.
Gary has a just giving page . So all you have to do is go to the JustGiving site and type in Gary Verity. To Gary we wish him a safe trip around.I bet there is one little girl who will be very proud of what her Daddy is doing.

I wish I live in a Caravan....

There is something about caravans and the life the people who own them fascinates me.Life looks so unhurried. Shame that in today's society they have to have a warning sign on the back of the wagon as they go along the road. I coming home when I saw this caravan near Thirsk .I asked if I take a photograph and was answered with a friendly smile and a wave. Earlier in the day I had seen the travellers sat around the campfire but I do regret I didn't have time to stop them. The horses grazing on the verges. In warm weather I couldn't think of a better way to live . I don't think I could cope with the bad weather and winters these travellers have to cope with. I suppose the interest goes back to when I was a child. My mother used to recite a rythm to me which stirred the interested in me.It goes like this....

"I wish I live in a caravan ,with a horse to drive like a pedlar man
Where he comes from nobody knows,where he goes to- onward he goes.
His caravan has windows two,
And a chimney of time that the smoke comes through.
He has a wife and a baby brown
and they go travelling from town to town.
Chairs to mend and delf to sell.
He clashes the basins like a bell
Tea trays ,baskets ranged in order,plates with alphabets round the borders.
With the pedlar man I would like to roam
Then write a book when I get home.
All the people would read my book,just like the Travels of Captain Cook.

It was actually a poem written by William Brighty Rands[1823-1882] There was an extra verse in it when I looked it up but my mother never told me that.
The interest of travellers must run in our family as my Dad's cousin Blanche Marsden[nee Buckle]who lived at Byland Abbey wrote a book called "Where I pitch my caravan" I would love to have read it but have never seen anything of the book

Treats from Bettys-

Bettys in Northallerton tea rooms is basking in the glory of being the very best tearoom in Great Britain. It has won the Tea Guide.s prestigious award of the Top Tea place for 2012. It is the highest accolade in the Tea World. And it serves 54.000 pots of tea a year. It is only half an hour from here and parking is easy so this is on the must do list of many of my guests.Forgive me if I will not be joining you for a cup of tea though, I hate the stuff.Cant even bear the smell of it,give me a glass of water any day. I do go in as they have wonderful Easter eggs as you will see in this window display and yummy cakes and tasty sandwiches.Biscuits are teh buttery sort that melt in your mouth. Bettys is rather an institute which I am lucky to have grown up with -minus the tea of course.

Happy Easter

It is maybe not as warm as we would like it but at least our Easter eggs wouldn't melt. Easter Bunnies- another things we associate with Easter. I was in Malton the other day and went into the pet shop there which seems to have been there for ever. I had to wait to get served which was quite a delight as I found all these furry little friends and some fish to look at. Takes me back when we had Jack and Jill the Dutch rabbits,GP the guinea pig and Gilbert the tortoise.I think the girls are too young yet to have pets like this to look after themselves but it wont be too long now...

Sunday is Yorkshire Pudding Day

Sunday wouldn't be Sunday without Yorkshire puddings. You can have big one.medium ones or little ones. A bit like feeding Daddy Bear ,Mummy Bear and Baby Bear. They are ever so easy to make and proper Yorkshire pudding makers don't need scales. You make them by eye- Plain flour,eggs ,milk and a drop of water and you need hot oven. I usually make 2 dozen small ones at a time .Jack can eat 8 and I eat 4 then there is a dozen left for the next day. My mum makes big ones they are harder to make. My Granny used to drop them around the meat in the roast tin -but that is an art in its self. People associate them with Roast beef but we have them with any roast dinner. The idea of the Yorkshire pudding is to have them first and it fills you up so you don't eat as much meat. Most people have them with gravy I like mine with golden syrup. My mum sometimes eats a spare one at tea time with jam.I am trying to persuade the local pub to serve them every time they are open as usually you can only get them on a Sunday lunch time. I heard the other day that Yorkshire is hoping to make them the regional delicacy. I think that is a brilliant idea. I have been known if time permits that if someone who really wanted to sample some and hadn't been able to find them I make them a dozen to take home . Not quite the same but better than none at all. Here you see 3 differnt sizes.So often when you get them in puds they are what I called burnt but it is a matter of preference to how long they are left in the oven. In summer when you have lettuce in the garden after you put your gravy on your pudding you can have lettuce salad on top too. Don't turn your nose up before you try it .Elaine Lemm wrote a great little book of Yorkshire pudding which you may find an interesting read